Aston Martin recalls the DB11

Aston Martin has been forced to recall every DB11 built since 2015 over the same steering column fault that blighted Mercedes-Benz last year. Stuttgart had to recall over a million models following reports of unintended airbag deployments, and while Gaydon has a much smaller number to fix - 3,873 cars, according to Reuters - that accounts for the entire production run of the new flagship.

While no Aston Martin customer is understood to have reported any problems, the brand has confirmed that the recall will address an issue with the "DB11 steering column upper". And when that problem is specifically the inadequate grounding of the electric steering's circuitry (making the unit rather vulnerable to electrostatic charges, which in turn have the potential to fire the airbag) you can see why Gaydon is keen to provide buyers with a quick fix.

This will be completely free of charge to owners, of course, and will apparently take under two hours to complete. Doubtless the headache will have provoked some frustration behind closed doors at Gaydon: increased reliability was cited as one of the upsides to sharing in Daimler's electrical systems. Still, 3,873 is a more manageable number than, say, 17,500 - which is the volume Infiniti has had to recall for a defect that was also not of its own making.

P.H. O'meter

Join the PH rating wars with your marks out of 10 for the article (Your ratings will be shown in your profile if you have one!)